I know this blog is for cool Istanbul but so much of ‘cool’ Istanbul residents move to Turkbuku in the summer and I’ve spent a fair amount of time myself there this summer that I thought I’ll dedicate a post entry to Turkbuku before the summer is over.Turkbuku is on the north side of Bodrum peninsula, but is very different to other Bodrum resorts of Gumbet, Torba, Turgutreis, etc. It is mainly a Turkish resort, very upmarket and outrageously expensive. It is similar in feel (though not in look) to St Tropez, Miami Beach, etc with expensive yachts, celebrities (Turkish and International), expensive restaurants, exclusive beach clubs, big villas, VIP clubs.
Turkbuku is a new resort. 15 years ago there was a small village and one restaurant on a jetty (Mey), well, things have changed.
Turkbuku is on a beautiful bay, quite big, with its neighbouring bay Golkoy. They brought the 2 bays under the same administration last year and started calling in Golturkbuku but no one calls it that!! Turkbuku it is. Golkoy is quieter and laid back.
Now Turkbuku is not for everyone but there are many lovers of Turkbuku (myself included)
Turkbuku bay is divided into 2, divided by the river flowing into the sea. If you’re facing the sea, the left side is the happening side, the right side, well, the more relaxed (read not smart enough)
On the smart side there are jetty after jetty of bars, restaurants, beach clubs and night clubs, all in one place. Let me explain – during the day they are beach clubs where you either rent a bed or gazebo for the day or pay an entrance fee, then they are sunset bars around 7, they become restaurants around 9 and bar and club after midnight.

After you spend a week in Turkbuku, you would feel like you have jet lag as the day begins around 1pm and end around 6am.
There aren’t that many hotels in Turkbuku as the main crowd from Istanbul either have summer villas there or come with their yachts (ideally both)
The hotels are of very good quality:Ada Hotel : a beautiful small boutique hotel of the Relais and Chateau group with an exquisite Turkish Bath. A little uphill, but with a jetty beach club and free shuttle service. http://www.adahotel.com/Maca Kizi : A very established hotel and beach club at the end of the bay. Very popular. http://www.macakizi.com/Maki Hotel : Next to Maca Kizi with a popular beach club. http://www.makihotel.com.tr/Divan Palmira : In the heart of all action, with a nice pool area, nice beach club and a great bar. An old favourite with many people, some who spend the whole season there. http://www.divan.com.tr/hotel/palmira/default.asp?sxx=0Iber Princess Hotel : A large hotel, at the end of the bay, on its own small picturesque peninsula. Modern hotel but has a wonderful beach club. This summer the hotel became All Inclusive and went a bit downmarket with the clientele (packet tours etc), only the private villas are still OK with their own VIP beach. http://www.turkeyhotelsguide.net/iberhotelbodrumprincessturkey.htmlKuum Hotel. Opened this year, weird modern architecture, very minimalist and a great beach club http://www.id-mag.com/article/kuum/Ev Hotel : Minimalist villas, Ian Schrager style, on top of the hill. Very trendy, very expensive. http://www.designhotels.com/hotels/europe/turkey/bodrum/ev_bodrum_turkey

Top Beach Clubs 2008 : Beach clubs in Bodrum are the place to be during the day unless you have your own boat or invited to a friend’s boat. They usually charge 75YTL to 100 YTL entrance fee, but whatever you spend inside is taken off this so it is a way guarantee a minimum spend for you. If you spend more then this, you must pay the extra.

Maca Kizi, http://www.macakizi.com/Maki,http://www.makihotel.com.tr/Biancahttp://www.biancabeach.com/ – large beautiful and fun. Great bar scene around 6pm where the beautiful people of Turkbuku flock for the sunset party. Has a great Greek Tavern at nights.Iber Princess Hotel – very pretty but clientele gone down this year.Kuum Beach – The highlight of 2008, great location, beautiful sea, great service. My favourite. With a new hotel http://www.id-mag.com/article/kuum/Lola and Ada – next to each other in the bay, small jetties, but don’t have minimum spend, you hire beds for the day for around 6YTL. Good bar and restaurant service in both.

Top Restaurants and ClubsShipahoy : The top top top club is Shipahoy and has been for years. A beach club during the day, in the evening it transforms to the hottest place to be. http://www.shipahoybodrum.com/
White barrels act as bar tables and the few seats are bottle service only for the VIPs (which are plenty in Turkbuku) Large tip is needed to secure these. Hundreds of people, young and old, decend here ta night to drink the expensive cocktails (25 – 30 YTL each) and sort of shuffle to the great club music later at night interspersed with Turkish tunes.Guverte. At the unpopular end of the bay, they host popular Turkish singers and performers all summer. Program starts around 1.30am, set price for music and local drinks, price depends on the performer.Fidele : Great restaurant, next door to Shipahoy, mainly seafood, with their signature mezes and main courses. http://www.fidelehotel.net/indextr.htmDivan Palmira, Macakizi, Maki hotels have good restaurants.
Many many more restaurants along the bay from Casita Manti to Changa, Bodrum Manti, all have their main locations in Istanbul.

Dress Code : Turkbuku is unique and have its own dress code among all of the holiday resorts. It is a weird mixture of dress down beach with designer wear. I’ll speak about women here as men don’t care what they wear, linen shirts, shorts, t-shirts, flip flops, anything dress down goes. It’s the girls who go mad!
Beachwear is designer label bikinis, the smaller the better, preferably with sequins and sparkly bits on. On top of the bikini, a trendy loose kaftan of any colour, , short or long, again with sequins. This kaftan can either be designer or bought from ‘Ipekce’ shop on the Turkbuku bay, selling Indian sourced kaftans and jewellery. On top of the kaftan you need chunky cheapish jewellery of glass, beads, semi precious stones such as turquoise, amber. Large bracelets, necklaces hair accessories, anklets, they don’t need to be taken out while swimming, though I fail to understand how they can stay afloat with so many stuff on!! Hair this year was big. It has to be styled so that it looks like you’ve just woken up, put a hair clip on and came down the beach, which can only be achieved after careful grooming. Some women wear high heeled wedges and some wear trendy flip flops, either is acceptable, depending on how tall you are I suppose.
Night time, this uniform is more or less kept, maybe a pair of shorts and a longer kaftan sometimes, not necessarily. You only need to add a lot of make-up and you’re there!!Typical Day in Turkbuku :
Wake up at 12.
Beach club around 1.30pm
Beach party in beach club, or sunset drinks in Shipahoy or Divan : 6 – 8pm
Home for rest, wash and change
Dinner : 10pm – 12
Bar : 12- 2am
Club or watch performer : 2- 5am
Morning eat in Bodrum Manti : 5- 6am

Not much English is spoken in Turkbuku and menus are usually in Turkish but the quality of food and service is very good as they depend on repeat customers. This place is the choice of many celebrities from Olivier Martinez to Cavalli to Uma Thurman and Paris Hilton. What can I say, they liked it.

You are in Istanbul, with its exotic charms and reminiscence of 1001 Arabian nights, you’ve been to the Topkapi palace and the Harem and then you want to have a night out in style in sumptuous surroundings, a great feast and a host of belly dancers but don’t want to go to a tourist trap. Then Al-Jamal is the place for you.Al-Jamal is a themed restaurant taking its food, décor and music inspirations from Turkey, Middle East and Morocco.
The décor is wonderful. Topkapi Palace Harem comes to life in this smallish restaurant with sumptuous fabrics, gold, copper and silver accessories, coloured glass lanterns, colourful tiles, every inch decorated richly and luxuriously. The lighting is dim and romantic.
The dinner is a true feast. It is served as a set menu. They start with tens of small dishes, from Turkey, Middle East and North Africa, every one very unique and tasty, served exquisitely in delicate dishes. The main courses are set as well, delicious meats and rice served in copper plates. Dessert is one of the highlights, consisting of helvas, baklavas, and milk puddings. Some desserts come in fez like containers. Then (if you still have any place left) they bring an optional tray of Turkish delight. They bring it on a trolley with long sticks of Turkish delight in a glass jar, when you pick the types you want, the gloved waiter picks them and cuts them into pieces with silver scissors. I would recommend you to skip lunch (even breakfast) if you plan a visit to Al-Jamal. Unlimited local drinks are included and the total cost is around 120YTL.
Now for the entertainment, after all this is why many people go there. Music is soft to start with, with Turkish and Arabic tunes. Then 2 singers come out (there is no stage) and sing a couple of songs to get things going.

Then after dinner is cleared it is time for the belly dancers. First a wonderful male belly dancer makes an apeearance. He is by far the best dancer of the night. After him, not 1, not 3 but 5 women belly dancers, dressed in different coloured belly dancing costumes start dancing among the tables. They take turns at each table and if they sense that the table is willing to tip them, they stay longer, even go up and dance on the table. The belly dancers are given tips by putting the notes in their bras, bra straps or tucked into their waist. (with the male belly dancer, on his waist obviously but due to his belly dancing skills this proved very difficult!!!) It is usually the men who tip the dancers but women can tip as well. You can tip starting anything from 10YTL up to hundreds if you feel like, but then they will never leave your table!!
Many women and some men dance with the belly dancers. After about half an hour the belly dancers leave and by this time most tables would be up and dancing. The music gets louder and they also play many popular old and new Turkish songs that the Turkish guests sing along to. Towards the end of the night the whole place party together as if in a house party. The night ends early here around 1am.
For a fun and memorable night out, straight out of the pages of 1001 Arabian Nights, this is the perfect location.

The new location of Al jamal is not one large room but a maze of interconnecting rooms of 3-4 tables each which makes the place more intimate but does not distract from the atmosphere. They are now located on the hill called Akaretler, near the W hotel going up toward the Swissotel.

Address : Suleyman Seba Cad. No 42/46 Akaretler, Istanbul

Phone : +90 212 236 50 17

Reservation is a MUST

As with other Istanbul nightlife spots people dress up. This is not a touristic restaurant and Istanbul people go to this club dressed to impress.

This restaurant group also opened a new place called Nahide Palas, kind of replacing Cahide, with the focus to recreate 60s and 70s Istanbul evening entertainment of Gazinos with live music acts, but I’ve not been there yet, though I heard many good things about it from family and friends. Will post a review soon!

UPDATE (10/2011): Al Jamal is now closed, in its place the same owner opened another restautant called Arabesque with a Lebanese theme and similar entertainment so you won’t be disappointed. The owner Izzet Capa gave interviews to a couple of magazines saying there Al Jamal has been replicated by a number of other restaurants and he likes to be at the forefront of Istanbul nightlife. He likes to do things other people are not doing to stay desirable and keep the discerning and easily bored Istanbul clientele interested.
Last week I went to Nahide again and it was great, unfortunately due to some national tragedies the entertainment was kept to a minimum, out of respect which was completely understandable. But the food and the atmosphere was top notch.

In the summer, Istanbul nightlife move to the shores of Bosphorous. Unique to Istanbul are the ‘superclubs’ which are kind of entertainment complexes under the same roof (well under the same sky as they are open air) They have restaurants, bars and a club which makes them a great place to go early at night and stay until the early hours of the morning. Sortie have regular events, concerts, cinema showings, especially on Sundays so it’s worth checking their website from time to time.

The oldest of these clubs, and after years still the most popular. It has a number of restaurants in including Turkish, Seafood, Chinese, Greek, Italian, 2 bars and a large dance floor. It is situated in Kurucesme by the Bosphorous and have wonderful views. For early evening drinks, the place is quiet with a chilled atmosphere and music. It is not a time for people watching and posing.

Dinner service starts around 830 (starts earlier but would be empty) and continues until about midnight, some of the restaurants are for late night eats and stay open all night. I can recommend Kosebasi for a good Turkish Kebap, or the new Greek restaurant Varaulko by a famous michelin starred chef.

If you want to go just for the bar, unless you have reservation, or buy drinks buy the bottle, or know the manager, or pay a huge tip, you cannot sit at the tables but have to stand up around tall bar tables or around the bar. Even if you are standing in a corner, it is waiter service though. Waiters find you anywhere, bring your drinks promptly and get their payments. It is very efficient. The bar areas become a club later in the night, around 1am. There is a dance floor and resident and visitor DJs play a mixture of Turkish and International hits. The music is very middle of the road, aimed to please everyone as people from all age groups visit Reina.

Reina is expensive. Drinks over £10 per cocktail. Food depends on the restaurant. The doormen have been critisized as being rude. I’ve always been to Reina for dinner and then stayed on late so did not have deal with the doormen as having a reservation guarantees your entry unless you are so under-dressed and scruffy that they may refuse entry.

Reina is full of posers, people with money there to show off as in many top clubs around the world. If you don’t like that sort of thing Reina is not for you. People, especially women are really dressed up and I like going to Reina even for the people watching. Not many people dance but sort of shuffle on their feet which is funny to watch but a lot of people let their hair down and have a great time as well.

The views are breathtaking and if you have the budget, spending a night out in Reina would be a great experience that you won’t forget easily. If you don’t have the budget, you can still dress up, come to Reina around 730 – 8 and have a cocktail and watch the sunset surrounded by the beautiful people of Istanbul.

Reina is also open in winter but offer limited service indoors with only the Reina restaurant but is is still very popular with a late night bar and club.

100meters from Reina, it is very similar in style and concept so I won’t repeat the general features, you can refer to what I said about Reina above. As posy and expensive as Reina and as difficult to get into late at night.

It has many restaurants including a good Turkish restaurant, Japanese, French, Brazilian, Chinese, International cuisines as well as a wonderful Fish Restaurant. I would highly recommend the fish restaurant Fishmekan. Most of these restaurants have their main location outside Sortie as well and I like Mori, Mirror and Sahan.

Suada is really special. It has a unique position of being an artificial island in the middle of the Bosphorous. It used to be a sports club but for a couple of years its’ been rented out as a pool/bar/club complex.

During the day it operates as a beach club with an Olympic sized pool. You can only imagine the wonderful panoramic views of Istanbul on all sides, being in the middle of the Bosphorous. You access Suada with the complimentary boat service from Kurucesme. You pay entrance fee for the pool and can enjoy it all day, with happy hour drinks in the afternoons on Saturday and Sundays.

In the evenings it is very similar in concept to Reina and Sortie (see above)

The place has many restaurants including a cafe, Italian, Turkish, International and Seafood. Mezzaluna, the Italian restaurant have many branches around the city and is very good. I would try tor Turkish Kebap restaurant as well, you can’t go wrong in this stunning location. Suada has a number of bars and it becomes a club alter at night.

I would highly recommend Suada, for a day out, evening drinks or a full night out just for the unbeatable views of Istanbul. It hosts regular ‘beach’ parties during the day and have many performers such as Ayhan Sicimoglu and Latin All Stars, a Turkish Latin band on Wednesdays (they play at Reina on Sundays).

Dresscode

Dresscode for all these clubs at night is similar. Unfortunately you need to look the part of you want entry to these clubs, especially late at night.

Women dress up. Revealing dresses, short skirts, skimpy tops all acceptable, even expected. Top labels, expensive bags, strappy high heeled sandals, jewellery, you can really go over the top. In the summer colourful dresses are seen as well as black dresses. A minimum would be nice jeans, a sparkly dressy top and high heels. You will not see a woman wearing trainers or flat shoes. You’d be surprised how many girls have their hair done, at least blow-dried and there is lots and lots of make up.

Men usually wear jeans, black cotton trousers and a smart long sleeved shirt. There are some younger men with smart designer t-shirts. During the week there will be men in suits but only if they are coming after work, suit and ties are not needed and not seen on weekends unless coming from a wedding. Oder men wear tailored trousers, a crisp white shirt or polo shirt and sports jacket. Lots of linen is acceptable, similar to Italy. Very smart trainers are sometimes acceptable if you are a trendy youth but you may be refused entry.

Transport

The traffic around these clubs which are only hundreds of yards apart is horrendous between 9pm – 3am. Police is doing their best but when thousands of people arrive in their cars to be valet parked this is difficult. Taxi is the best way and taxis wait outside until early morning. Of course the only socially acceptable way to get into Reina is by your own Boat 🙂 but this may not be an option for most of us.

Have fun in Istanbul !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE (Oct 2011)
I was in Istanbul last week and we went to Suada, to eat at Suada Balik and it was a great night out in winter as well as in summer. The weather was quite good for October so it was semi-open but with lots of heaters and we had beautiful mezes and lufer (bluefish) which is in season right now. There is also Suada Kebap and another seafood restaurant still open, as well as the bar. The boat trip was quick, again heater in there so don’t hesitate to go to Suada in winter

Istanbul is a big, exciting, exotic and a complicated city. Many visitors to Istanbul get to see only a small part of it and usually miss out on the really cool stuff. Once the must see historic sites and museums are done, most visitors struggle to find the real Istanbul, the trendy and happening Istanbul that travel and lifestyle magazines are talking about.

I am from Istanbul, now living in London and travel frequently to Istanbul. Over the years I gave advice to many friends from London and over the world who were going to Istanbul and travelled to Istanbul with some. They were always grateful for the help and appreciated a local’s point of view.

I’d like to share these tips with you on this blog, and update you on what’s new and what’s hot in Istanbul.